Marseillan is by far the biggest, most glamorous port we’ve visited so far, thronged with French and international tourists and lined with bars and restaurants. Best of all, we met up with new friends and made some even newer ones.
Day 1
This feels like the South of France! And yet we almost gave it a miss, turned around and left straight for the Canal du Midi. I’m so glad we didn’t.
Petit Rhône, Canal du Rhône à Sète, L’Étang de Thau:
Fourque-all mooring, screwed at Saint-Gilles, celebration in Carnon, hello l’Etang de Thau
About 13km from Vallabregues, the last lock on the Rhône, we entered the Petit Rhône.
You’ll never get a better view of le pont d’Avignon than from the boat, warned Roy, so I snapped away.
Two points to clarify here: (a) it’s actually called Pont Saint Bénézet, and (b) though the people actually danced sous (under) the bridge, the words of the famous song go, “Sur (on) le pont d’Avignon l’on y danse etc.” (Not that we want to be anal about this, or do we, Roy?)
Rhône River: Condrieu, Saint-Vallier, Valance (l’Epervière), Cruas, Saint-Etienne-des-Sorts
After a quick round of the Carrefour at Confluence Lyon port, off we headed for our first day on the Rhône – two locks (one with a 9m chute, the other 6m), and a total of five hours. Differently from the Sâone, the Rhône has a specific channel that you (meaning Roy) have to watch for and follow. We had the famous mistral wind behind us, and a little bit of current.
Rivers Sâone and Rhône:
Lyon stands on the site of Lugdunum, the capital of ancient Gaul, established in 43BC
Our only lock from Neuville to Lyon, Couzon, took a good hour, as we and three other leisure boats (including The Way, which moored behind us last night) had to wait for a montant (going upstream) commercial barge.
We tried the two-ropes-to-one-bollard technique, just for practice; and have stuck with that for the rest of these big Rhône locks.
From there, it’s a picturesque cruise into Lyon, France’s third-biggest city.
Flashback to the 80s
My last trip to Lyon was in the 80s, as part of my first overseas adventure, a six-week Contiki tour of Europe. Here’s a blast from the past, if you’ll excuse my gratuitous arm art. We were all dressed up for a “Bad Taste Party” at the disco.
Port de Plaisance de Lyon Confluence
Apart from being a mouthful to say, the huge, modern Port de Plaisance de Confluence at Lyon is quite something to behold. Smaller boats moor at pontoons near the capitainerie, in the port de plaisance proper; bigger ones like ours go under a 4.5m bridge and moor against the pier.
There’s a two-metre gap between the water and the pier, so it’s a bit of a leap from our roof. Confluence itself is a big, hyper-modern shopping mall with, wait for it, a Zara. Not just a Zara, but one of the biggest Zaras I’ve ever seen – and I’ve seen a lot of Zara shops all over the world. (Yet nothing tempted me; I must be coming down with something.)
After an extended apéro session with hospitable Californians Becky and Dave on board their beautiful Piper boat Wanderlust (where we also met Kiwis Cilla and Aaron Hegerty from Christchurch), Roy and I headed to a nearby brasserie called Midi à Minuit.
Though it was closed for renovations, its menu was being served at the highly unexpected “English-themed” Peaky Blinders Tavern right next door. I had some excellent salmon, Roy had seven-hour-braised lamb shoulder (about €65 for two mains, a bottle of wine and a café gourmand).
Sunday Lunch in the Old City
From our capitainerie, we’d got the timetable for the very convenient Vaporetto, a water-taxi that shuttles between the Confluence port and three other stops.
It’s just €2 per trip, and the first stop is perfect for visiting the old city of Lyon, highlights of which include the Cathedral and the old neighbourhoods, Quartier St Jean and Quartier St Georges.
Without even trying, we stumbled on two Sunday morning markets – first a general one with some great-looking fresh produce, other food and household stuff, then a market selling a wide variety of art.
At random, we chose L’Amphitryon for lunch. Empty except for us at noon, it was packed by 1pm, as were all the other bouchons (typical Lyonnaise brasseries) in the old part of the city.
Everyone, naturally, wants to go to the three-Michelin-starred Paul Bocuse Restaurant. We didn’t have time to even try, but we did attempt to visit the indoor market “Les Halles de Lyon – Paul Bocuse” in Part Dieu shopping centre, recommended to us by David and Becky. It was closed for Sunday afternoon, which was fair enough. So we took a cheap and easy tram back to Confluence. This is a very convenient city to visit by boat!
Doubs River (briefly) and Sâone River: Roy in a good mood at Verdun-sur-le-Doubs, return to Chalon-sur-Sâone, treats in Tournus, Mâcon, medieval masonry at Montmerle-sur-Sâone, not-so-new Neuville-sur-Sâone
Four hours and two beautiful, big locks after leaving St Jean-de-Losne one lovely Sunday morning, Karanja berthed at Verdun-sur-le-Doubs, just in time for Roy to catch the last half of the British Grand Prix.
Canal de Bourgogne: A rattling good time in St J-d-L, French engineering, friends and neighbours, out and about, memorable musée, Bastille Day bonhomie, minor mishaps
St Jean-de-Losne seemed far more attractive this time round than it did on our driving holiday in October last year, when we stopped in for a quick look-see and a coffee. That was a good thing, as we were going to be spending a full week here, moored to the Blanquart service quay just after the lock that takes you from the Sâone River to the start (or end) of the Canal de Bourgogne.
River Sâone, Part One: Far canal stats, Roy “The Knife” in Poncey lock, feasting on frogs’ legs in Pontailler, cycling around Auxonne
Here are the stats for our journey so far, according to the Ancient Mariner:
River Wide
It’s fabulous to be on the wide, beautiful River Sâone, which we have mainly to ourselves. You get an inkling of what a big country France is – and that there’s often not very much in between the towns.
Orientation (for Carl, who likes to know)
We’ve come south to Pontailler down Le Canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne – here, if you can read the tiny light-blue script, it’s called by its old name, Canal de la Marne à la Sâone.
Roy “The Knife”
It wasn’t all quite this peaceful, though. At our only lock today, at Poncey, at the end of a short canal deviation from the Sâone, that very dangerous thing that everyone warns you about happened: Roy’s mooring rope got caught and the boat started to “hang”.
Quick as a flash, he sprang into action! Leaping across the wheelhouse, he got the knife that had been sitting in its box waiting for this very thing to happen, and cut the rope with a loud twang. Cleverly, he cut it near the eye, so we wouldn’t lose the whole rope. All he has to do now, he says, is to “splice another eye*”.
(*Everyone should have one or more things they are totally incapable of doing, lest they find themselves uncomfortably indispensable. Mine used to be answering switchboards; to that, I’ve now added splicing eyes in ropes.)
Pontailler-sur-Sâone
We loved our two nights at Pontailler’s conveniently located Canalous Port. (Canalous, by the way, is the name of a boat hire company, and very nice they look, too.)
In the middle of another heatwave, cooking was out of the question, and so we ate our dinner two nights running at the excellent Les Marronniers restaurant – named for the nearby grove of horse-chestnut trees.
Like most countries, I suppose, France has its share of mediocre eateries; this is not one of them. We had foie gras salad, oefs-en-meurettes and tartiflette pizza on the first night; on the second, chicken supreme for Roy and frogs’ legs in parsley butter for me.
Auxonnes
Having been ushered to the far end of the visitors’ pontoon by Aussie John the port captain, we were about as far as it was possible to be from the pretty centre ville.
But it’s better to be away from the row of families closer to shore, moored side-by-side and close enough to smell one another’s farts.
Our bikes came in handy at Auxonne, as we rode them to the big and beautiful Intermarché and its neighbouring Brico – a sort of DIY chain, like the UK’s Horrible Homebase or Oz’s Boring Bunnings*.
(*These are places I avoid in the normal course of events; but I unfortunately managed to drop the action-end of the deck broom into the canal a couple of days ago, and part of my just punishment is sourcing its replacement.)
And later, we cycled back to town for dinner at Le Corbeau, said to be the best restaurant in town; and though the food was fine (Roy’s duck breast with mash was excellent; I had the faux filet with frites, a bit dull), I thought the best thing about the place was the waiter. So precious! – I dared not photograph him.
Le Canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne: Saint-Dizier, Chevillon, Dongeux/Rouvroy, Viéville/Vraincourt, Chaumont, Foulain, Rolampont, Heuilly-Cotton, Cusey, Fontaine Francaise/Saint Seine, Revène
French lessons, service with a sourire, semi-villages, famine country, Chaumont and the Holy Grail, French Style Police, heroic Henri IV fountain
In case you (like our son Carl) have been wondering exactly where we are – and I know the feeling well! – here are are a couple of maps, boldly nicked from the internet. The red squiggle in the centre of the map of France (left) shows Le Canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne, whose 114 locks we’ve just completed, heading from north to south.
Canal de l’Aisne à la Marne, Canal latéral à la Marne, Canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne:
Ropy run to Reims, Lynn and Kim for lunch, close but no champagne at Billy-le-Grande, super-chaud in Chaussée, stranded in Orconte
Berry-au-Bac to Sillery port (10km from Reims)
For today’s 14 locks, we’d be experiencing a different automatic lock system – one that’s activated by twisting a perche, or rod, that’s suspended from a gallows-like contraption over the river.
